Whidbey Island Race Week News Thursday, July 13, 2017 ...
Transcript of Whidbey Island Race Week News Thursday, July 13, 2017 ...
Whidbey Island Race Week News Thursday, July 13, 2017 Thursday, July 13, 2017 Whidbey Island Race Week
BRENDA VAN FOSSEN
M.D.
Above left, tending marks and setting lines under blue skies in 70+-degree weather
is all in a day’s work for the CYC race committee.. Be sure to tell ‘em thanks as you
pass by.
Above right, Bill and Cathy Walker’s pristine Ehu Kai sailed into Wednesday’s top spot
beneath Penn Cove’s Blowers Bluff. Hailing from Oak Harbor, the San Juan 24 not
only taps into local knowledge but double downs with an ace in the pocket,
sailing savant, Gary Stuntz.
Left, the Beneteau 25, Bodacious, grabbed gold, and a few more fans on Wednesday
thanks to her harmonious crew work and curvy eye-candy-licious lines.
Below, on the left, the students, on the right, the masters. In a delightful display of
generational Darwinism, the two Tahoe-based Melges 24s in the one-design Class 6,
prove that in the theater of life, it pays to teach one to fish rather than to toss them the
bones. At day’s end, however, Nikita’s hard-won experience schooled the kids on Blue
Dream. With two days left of racing, however, there are still plenty of lessons to ace,
Left, David Jackson’s
Point Roberts based
stalwart Dash 34,
MadDash, plucks crew
from both sides of the
border. A natural fit for
Pacific Northwest/Salish
Sea waters, the Dash
grabbed bronze for
her smart sailing in
Wednesday’s racing.
Right,, one of three
1D35s in Class 1,
Vancouver BC’s The
Shadow grabs the
spotlight with its mix of
fashion and finesse.
Above left, one of two Melges 32s in Class 1,
Darrin Towe’s Wicked Wahine secured the
silver in Wednesday’s racing. The big boat
class of 2017 is a spectator favorite with its
remarkably tight sailing.
Above right, standing top of the reader board
in the Melges 24 ckass, the Melges 24
Cool Beans proves consistency is a key
tactic when it comes to winning a multi-day,
multi-race regatta.
Left, one of three Olson 25s in Class 8,
Espresso, winner of Tuesday’s gold pickle
dish, bangs the beach in search of
Wednesday’s favorable eddys. Competing
against three J/24s and two San Juan 24s,
the Olsons factor in a 57-second handicap
spread and face fierce competition from
the tasty, and relentlessly consistent, SJ/24
Amuse Bouche,
Whidbey Island Race Week News Thursday, July 13, 2017 Thursday, July 13, 2017 Whidbey Island Race Week
WIRW NEWS 2017
WIRW News is sponsored by Cori Whitaker, Windermere Real Estate
www.CoriWhitakerHomes.com / 206.795.4361 / [email protected]
Volume 35, Issue 3
Above, the Albany, Oregon
based Olson 25 cruises past
the Coupeville dock on
a downwind run.
Left, when you see the Corvo
crew in the tent, buy ‘em a
drink. Please.
Whidbey Island
Race Week News
© 2017
Editorial:
Vicky MacFeidh,
Liza Tewell
Photography:
Jan Anderson
www.janpix.smugmug.com
Above left, Peter
Sauer’s Sabrosa,
aggregate winner of
Wednesday’s racing,
leads Class 3 down-
wind.
Above right, Brad
Butler’s crew sports
pink for Wednes-
day’s breast cancer
awareness. Yup,
they got first for
the day.
C an you feel it? Have you experienced that transcendent, middle-of-Race-Week feeling
where you remember that you’ve forgotten about the world beyond the beautiful
borders of Penn Cove? That decompression isn’t the marine layer dissipating in the
late morning above Puget Sound, just over the fescued berm to the west, it’s Whidbey
Island Race Week. And it’s why we come back every year. Hard to explain to coworkers, hard to
let go of, it’s kept nonetheless in a treasured spot deep inside. When folks ask how you make it
through yet another relentlessly gray PNW winter, you smile to yourself, reach down and think,
Race Week is coming.
Day three of WIRW 2017 was as magical as the past 11 and a half months that our our memory
had glorified it to be: blue skies, 8 to 10 knots, 72 degrees (Farenheit, for you Canadians). The
CYC shot off three races, and when we crossed that finish line for the third time on Wednesday
we were happy knowing that we’d get to do it all again the next day.
Thursday evening the Oak Harbor Yacht Club is serving up bbq ribs for dinner. Yum. Sorry about
that for you vegetarians, though they also offer field burgers at the grill. Thursday is also the CSR
party featuring the reggae music of Yogoman, so break out your aloha shirts and stretch before
and after racing—the dance floor will be standing dancing room only. Crabbing for the week is
also open—enter your recipe in the Haggen Northwest Fresh Crab Cake Cook-off.
Above left, representing for Classes 3, 4 and 8, Anam Cara, Godzilla and
Ehu Kai share room at the finish line. Bill and Cathy’s Ehu Kai, a local
San Juan 24, earned top honors for Wednesday’s racing in their 9-boat class.
Above right, Kids Camp campers sailing aboard the historic Suva.
In the dead of winter, I’m going to pull out this photo when I have
a frown that needs turning around.